Let’s talk dirty.
Hey get your mind out of the gutter. Last Friday, the Francis Chiro Crew was fortunate enough to take a tour of the Standard Process Farm in Palmyra, WI. We spent most of the day talking about their dirt. As Michael Pollan, the author of In Defense of Food, wrote. “It is not what you eat, it was what you eat ATE”!
Here are some highlights from our dirt-y talk:
- A teaspoon of dirt has over 30,000 living organisms.
- They use 0 sprays. ZERO. They are truly what you think of when you think of organic.
- Cover crops are planted to help retain soil and to put the nutrients back in the soil that the previous crop took out
- Compositing to precision, to feed the organisms in the soil
- They will delay planting to miss insect migrations and decrease pet control
The list goes on and on. Standard Process has beautiful black dirt that is loaded with nutrients and here is the key: it is cultivated over time. On my last visit there, they were supposed to harvest buckwheat and show us the processing method they use. Unfortunately for us it had rained 6 inches. The demo was cancelled because if they drove on the fields wet, the compaction would take 10 years to undo the damage to the soil microbiome!
Yep, the soil has microbiome just like your gut. In fact, the soil of the food you eat helps sets your microbiome and SP controls the 3 S’s: Soil, Seed, Supplement.
That is why we love them so much.
The health of their soil is really a reflection of how we treat our health. If we don’t take care of our health it an take years to rebound. Problem is we are a society that want immediate change. If you do the right things for the wrong amount of time -well poor results will be the outcome.
So take care of your soil and soul by eating whole foods, sleeping well and exercising. Chip away and fertilize your way to good health.
Read past blog posts here